This past Saturday marked the start of the 2012 triathlon season for me, with the Inside Out Sports Olympic Triathlon at Beaverdam. A pretty long name for an event that historically attracts less than 200 people- but this race always lives up to it's drawn out moniker. For the past two years Beaverdam has served as my first S/B/R competition of the year, giving me a chance to clear the mental & physical cobwebs, while also giving some insight to the effectiveness of the past winter's training efforts.
This year's Oly at Beaverdam didn't kick off until 9:30am on Saturday, and with the Falls Lake race venue only ~ 35 minutes away, I was able to grab a full night's sleep in my own bed. The logistics of race morning are always a breeze with the FS Series Race Crew, and so by 8:30am I was checked in and ready to go. Through trial and error I've found that you can easily get caught up in the nervous energy that abounds on race morning. Regardless of the event size or distance, race morning usually has people hurriedly running, stretching, mashing away in the parking lot on a bike trainer, etc. In terms of physical prep there isn't really much that you can do on race morning that will lead to improved performance, but jeez- you sure can hurt your performance with an over-cooked, frantic 'warm up'. So after a light 10 min jog with a few pick ups, and 5-6 minutes getting used to the wetsuit in frigid Falls Lake, it was time to race!
The Swim
With an in-water swim start, I positioned myself as far to the left as possible to give me a straight line to the first turn roughly 400 meters out. At the gun I went out as hard as I could for the first 2:00 to try to get ahead of the main pack, and I found myself on ETT teammate Dave Williams' feet. I didn't expect it last long, but I told myself to hang on to Dave's draft as long as I could, with the hopes that he could pull us both into a gap in front of the others. By some miracle I was able to stay connected with Super Swimmer Dave, and the first third of the swim course flew by. The longest leg of the swim had us turn into a stiff wind in the center of oblong Falls Lake, which on race morning happend to have a few waves churning. I swallowed more than my share of lake water with each attempt to sight, and I fought hard to stay connected to Dave. Super Dave ripped up the swim, unaffected by the waves, and he pulled me all the way through in the process. We came up onto the beach with a sizable gap to the next swimmer, and we both made quick work of sprint up the beach into T1.
The Bike
The rust showed in the S to B transition, and Dave Williams got out and up the road as I made a mess of getting my feet in my cycling shoes out on course. Have you ever seen a cyclist kook tip over and fall while at a stand still? I almost did that. Twice. After I finally got into my shoes and in the right gear I was off to to see if I could get Dave back in my sights. My one stated goal of the day was to leave it all out on the bike course. Historically I give up some time to the eventual winners on the bike, and I faded badly on the bike at the Cary Duathlon three weeks prior. Beaverdam has a rolling 43k bike course with a 3 or 4 short out of the saddle climbs. Not much else to say about this ride other than that I buried myself. I wasn't sure what kind of run would be left after going for broke on the bike, but I was determined not to lose this race to a soft effort on the bike. Dave kept things interesting on the bike, and it was good fun as we continually overtook one another for the better part of an hour.
Not only can Dave swim like hell, but the dude can flat out ride a bike. Did I mention that Dave is recovering from a fractured pelvis from a bike fall in March? He's not a guy who ever looks for excuses, and what he did on Saturday was just sick given the circumstances. Really refreshing attitude, especially in light of some who are quick to reach for excuses after a perceived poor performance. We all deal with adversity along the way, and I admire guys and gals like Dave who accept things as they come and try not to complain about the hand that they are dealt.
I managed to gap Dave by a small margin late in the bike course, and I was super relieved to see the last turn into Falls Lake Park. The Beaverdam bike course hurt me significantly more than I was able to hurt it, especially the last two successive hills leading into the park!
The Run
Heading into T2, I had a small lead that I didn't want to give up. I had hoped to get out onto the run course quickly to stay out of sight of anyone who might be close behind. WRONG! I did put together a pretty quick transition and was mentally patting myself on the back as ripped up the hill out of T2, when one of the FS Series race directors cheerfully pointed out that was missing my run number. Cursing myself all the way, I blew back into transition to grab the offending bib belt, before I was back out on the run course with a self imposed 70 second penalty. I ran the first ten minutes pretty angry with myself for such a bonehead move in transition. Embracing the anger inside while trying to channel it into effort on the pavement, I ran hard. I told myself over and over that I started with the first swim wave that morning, and while I the virtual leader on the course, there were probably more than a couple fit guys from later waves who were in contention. The run course was a rolling two loop 10k through Falls Lake Park, and a few of the other runners out on course had me crunching numbers and calculating splits to balance out the hurt put on by the hills. I was able to cross the line out front with a 39:10, two transition 10k.
Great race put on by the FS Series crew. These guys are class acts that put on professional events with a friendly, local feel. Awesome venue, awesome course. Thanks to Inside Out Sports for supporting this event and its participants, and to the coaching (and competition!) from Triangle Multisport. Also thanks to Fleet Feet Sports in Carrboro for helping this dude along the way...
Thanks for reading, I hope you didn't fall asleep in the process.
jw
